Chalk Repertory Theatre to put on modernized play in immersive space

The sun is setting and the gossip is in full swing as audience members wander a garden party outside of UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. There, they join the journey of a troubled young woman as she works to sort out the truth amid a tangle of rumors.

Running Friday to Sunday and Aug. 2-3 as part of the Clark Library’s 2014 Arts on the Grounds summer theater series, Oscar Wilde’s “Lady Windermere’s Fan” returns to the library after a successful run last year. Through the work of the Chalk Repertory Theatre, a Los Angeles-based theater group that seeks diverse audiences by performing in a range of unconventional immersive spaces, the fourth wall between the imaginary world of the play and the audience is broken in this modernized version of the 19th-century play.

The show is hosted in what is meant to be the gardens of Lady Windermere’s outdoor 21st birthday party, and audience members will witness Lady Windermere as she sorts through a series of rumors suggestive of her husband’s infidelity. In the midst of such navigation, she must grapple with the contrasting forces of societal expectations and morality, dilemmas that Wilde is known for satirizing.

While the play’s dialogue and the societal implications of that dialogue remain intact, Jennifer Chang, a founding member of Chalk Repertory Theatre and director of “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” said some audience members may notice the theater group’s additional social commentary within the play’s conscious casting.

“Old money is often played by white actors and the new money is played by actors of color,” Chang said. “I was cautious about the casting but I also wanted to turn the model of what classical modern theater normally is.”

Teri Reeves, a producer of the play who also plays the Duchess of Berwick, said that in addition to maintaining a diverse cast, one of the most important aspects of the theater group is how it works to attract nontraditional audiences who may not normally go to theater performances. It does this by performing in unique spaces such as people’s homes, living rooms, multi-room museums and even a day care center.

“We do try to reach unusual audiences or audiences that may not go to theater by setting it in places that are interesting and bringing plays that might be relevant to those specific neighborhoods and communities,” Reeves said.

In the midst of reaching these audiences through nontraditional locations, Chalk Repertory Theatre simultaneously showcases in different parts and neighborhoods of Los Angeles, Chang said.

One of these nontraditional spaces, the Clark Library, resides in the West Adams District of Los Angeles outside of the UCLA campus. Veronica Wilson, community liaison at the Clark Library, said that as a result of its location, the library attracts audiences from different parts of Los Angeles that normally wouldn’t frequent the theater.

Like the actors, audiences are given a chance to feel what it’s like to be a part of the play’s setting. In traveling to different parts of the Clark Library’s garden during the play’s acts, these audiences are intimately immersed in the ambiance of the play and even become a part of the play for a short period of time, Wilson said.

Without the aid of technology in this outdoor space, “Lady Winderemere’s Fan” also has to utilize all-natural light sources, Chang said. Thus, special attention is paid to where the audience is situated and even what time the play starts – at 6 p.m. – and ends, by dusk.

In addition to natural outdoor features, the Clark Library also houses the largest collection of original Wilde material in the world, Reeves said.

With a shared desire to attract a diverse range of audience members, the Chalk Repertory Theatre and the Clark Library’s Arts on the Grounds theater series offer a viewing experience that transcends conventional indoor theater.

“The audience gets to be immersed in (Wilde’s) world,” Reeves said. “They can feel it, taste it, touch it, more so than being in a theater looking up at a stage.”